Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/660

646 in the knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues. She married first Sir George Norton, knt. of Abbots Leigh, in Somersetshire, by whom she had three children, George and Elizabeth, who died young; and Grace, a lady of uncommon abilities, who married Sir Richard Gethin, and died in the flower of her age (See her Life) to the inexpressible grief of her mother. To alleviate her sorrow on this occasion, lady Norton wrote two books with the following titles. The Applause of Virtue. In four parts, published in 1705. This treatise she dedicated to her cousin, madam Freke of Shroten. Also Memento Mori; Meditations of Death; which she dedicated to her cousin the hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton. These pious treatises are an abundant proof of her learning, and how well read she was in the primitive fathers, philosophers, &c. which she perpetually quotes to elucidate her subject; nor are they less demonstrative of her good sense, and exalted piety.

It is said, that there are still remaining at Abbots Leigh, several pieces of furniture of her own working, with many devout sentences wrought in them; many were excellent and seasonable admonitions, which she gave to her friends and acquaintance. Among others the following are remembered: "Prayer is the great duty and greatest privilege of a christian; it is his intercourse with God, a petitioning for such things as we need for our support; it is an abstract, or summary of the christian religion, and divine worship, confessing God's power and mercy; it celebrates his attributes, confesseth his glory, reveres his person, implores his aid, and gives thanks for his blessings: it is an act of charity, for it prays for others; it is an act of repentance, when it confes-